Woman with Beaumont ties ID'd as 'Killing Fields' victim

1of14League City police display information on Donna Prudhomme, one of two women found decades ago in the "Texas Killing Fields".Photo: Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle

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3of14A digital composite image and DNA analysis released by the League City Police Department of a woman whose body was found in a field near Calder Road in 1991. The analysis indicates the woman had family that originated in Louisiana.Photo: League City Police Dept.

4of14A digital composite image and DNA analysis released by the League City Police Department of a woman whose body was found in a field near Calder Road in 1986. The analysis indicates that the woman had family that may have originated in Tennessee.Photo: League City Police Dept.

5of14Photo: Houston Chronicle

6of14Name: Charles Frederick AlbrightAlias: The Eyeball KillerCrime: Killed three women in the Dallas area in the early '90s. Investigators noted each victim had their eyeballs surgically removed.Status: In 1994, Albright was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He is incarcerated at Clements Unit in Amarillo, Texas.Photo: Texas Department of Criminal Justice

7of14Name: Joseph D. (Joe) BallAlias: The Alligator Man, the Butcher of Elmendorf, Bluebeard of South TexasVictims: Ball reportedly killed two women, but there very well could have been as many as 20 in the time between 1936 to Sept. 23, 1938.Status: When two Bexar County Sheriff's deputies attempted to question him, Ball shot himself through the heart. He died on the spot.

8of14Name: Kenneth McDuffAlias: The Broomstick MurdererCrime: McDuff was convicted of killing three teens in Everman, Texas in 1966. After spending two decades in prison, he was released but returned after being convicted in the death of a 17-year-old prostitute. Investigators believe he may have killed more people.Status: McDuff was executed in 1998.

9of14Name: Faryion Edward Wardrip Alias: N/ACrime: Wardrip was convicted for the rapes and murders of three women in Wichita Falls over an 18-month period from 1984 to 1986. Following his parole in 1997, police reopened an investigation in regards to four other murders in the area.Status: Wardrip was again convicted of murder in 1999 and was sentenced to death. He is on death row and awaiting his eventual sentence.

10of14Killer: UnknownAlias: Phantom Killer, Phantom SlayerCrime: Between February and May of 1946, an unknown person murdered five people and wounded three others in the Texarkana area, usually late at night. A local newspaper dubbed the series of attacks and murders the "Texarkana Moonlight Murders."Status: The killer was never found.

11of14Killer: UnknownAlias: N/ACrime: Since the '70s, law enforcement has uncovered around 30 bodies in an area of land inside Texas City that has since been dubbed "The Killing Fields." Most of the victims were young girls and women, ages 12 to 23.Status: Edward Harold Bell claimed to be killer, but prosecutors have not found evidence backing this claim. Kevin Edison Smith was accused of burying one victim in the area, Krystal Baker. He is now serving a life sentence.

12of14Name: Tommy Lynn SellsAlias: The Cross Country Killer, Coast to CoastCrime: Sells was convicted of killing a 13-year-old girl in Del Rio in 1999, but he recounted other murders he committed during the course of his life. Investigators believe he may have been responsible for the deaths of 22 people in total.Status: Sells was sentenced to death in 1999. He was executed in 2014.

13of14Name: Henry Lee LucasAlias: The Confession KillerCrime: Lucas, a convicted murderer, claimed to have killed hundreds in Texas and across the U.S. He was later convicted of murdering 11 people. Status: Lucas died in prison in 2001 from natural causesPhoto: AP photo

14of14Name: Genene Anne JonesAlias: N/ACrime: Jones, a former pediatric nurse at hospitals in San Antonio and Kerrville, was convicted in 1985 of killing a 15-month-old. She is believed to have killed as many as 46 infants under her care in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.Status: Upon her conviction, she was sentenced to 99 years in prison, but she is scheduled to be released in 2018.

League City police on Monday identified two women found dead decades ago in a swampy area off Interstate 45 known as the "Texas Killing Fields."

The victim known as "Jane Doe" was identified as Audrey Lee Cook, who police estimated was about 30 at the time her body was found in 1986. The other woman, known until now as "Janet Doe," was Donna Prudhomme, about 34 when her body was found in 1991.

At a news conference, League City police officials said they hoped the disclosure of the women's names would "help bring closure to the victims and their families" and yield tips that would help in investigations of potentially related cases.

Cook had lived in the Houston and Channelview areas from 1976-1985, police said, and had worked as a mechanic for a golf cart company in Houston in 1979. She lost contact with her family in December 1985.

Prudhomme had previously lived in the Beaumont and Austin areas.

A breakthrough in forensic DNA analysis helped detectives identify the skeletal remains of the two victims, both found in an area off Calder Road.

The "Texas Killing Fields" is a boggy, 25-acre stretch of land along Interstate 45 where four women's bodies were found between 1983 and 1991, including Cook and Prudhomme. No one has been convicted in connection with the four deaths.

Investigators announced in December that advances in DNA technology had provided the potential for unearthing new leads in the cold cases and identifying a suspect. Working with Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA technology company in Virginia, investigators have sought to piece together the appearance and ancestry of the two unidentified women using a new method of analysis called DNA "phenotyping."

After establishing the women's likely identities, police located relatives and obtained DNA samples for comparison, which confirmed the identifications.